Tales From A Kitchen Gardener

Here we are again, the beginning of a new term. Everyone is fresh and eager to get their minds and bodies back into the land of learning. I have to say I’m no different.

Week two, term 4. Full of enthusiasm I leapt into the shop front of the Northey Street Nursery, ready to buy up, my mind going from here to there, if I grew that, we could eat that. It was endless. Well it was until I had my first real reality check. The nursery while, it was well stocked with amazing looking plants, the varieties seemed a little light on. How could this be I had it in my head I was going to do this and that. I had the next 8 weeks locked in. Then my sensibility kicked in. I began to ponder what season it was, where the temperatures were headed and the kind of growing conditions I had to work with. It was now to hot for rocket, the root veggies, while nearly ready for harvest wouldn’t be back until next Autumn and many of the Chinese greens had made heir debut. Our kitchen garden was entering into one of the harder seasons to manage. A sub tropical summer. Warm, humid conditions, while they make ideal growing conditions for some things, made it much harder to manage for others. It wasn’t as even sailing as our other seasons. I quickly got the attention of my dear colleague Peta Deacon who runs the nursery and our planning began our. This time taking on some more difficult varieties to have a go at. I know what we can grow now it’s time to extend our selves. Wish me luck, I always maintain that growing your own food is a little bit of skill a little bit of good measure and a lot of mother nature.